The Rouge Fight
by DREAMFeathersong
Summary: A fight against cats stirs up the past, creating a new future for everybody.
1. Chapter 1

"LET ALL CATS OLD ENOUGH TO CATCH THEIR OWN PREY GATHER HERE TO LISTEN TO ME TALK! JUST KIDDING REALLY, JOIN FOR A CLAN MEETING! BUT IT'S SORTA THE SAME CONCEPT!" Honeystar had a dry sense of humor. Everyone knew that.

Tawnywish came out of the medicine cat den, and sat down next to Thistlenose. Cricketpaw came out behind her, and went to join the other apprentices, sitting next to Sandpaw. Rockheart and Wolfdust came out of the warrior's den, talking. While Heartlove was trying coax Thornpelt out of the elder's den, eventually giving up and going to sit with Leafsound and Heavenear.

Honeystar looked down at the mob of cats, a feeling of duty welling up inside her. This was her family, and they deserved to know what was going on.

"Fellow clanmates, I'm sure you have heard about the dawn patrol's encounter with the rouges. Do not worry, for Tawnywish tells me that Vineflame will be fine, though his wounds are serious." Honeystar looked down and noticed many cats were glancing over at the medicine cat den, where Vineflame was resting.

"Those rouges have pushed us around long enough! It's time to fight!" Thunderclaw stood up, yelling loud enough for every cat to hear. "If we don't they will kill us all!" Leave it to Thunderclaw to worry the clan.

"Thank you Thunderclaw, but if you don't mind, I would like to speak." Honeystar watched him sit back down, though his ears flicked in frustration. "It's true that we must do something. We shall form plans and wait for Vineflame to recover. Until then, I want extra patrols along the rouge border, along with regular patrols along Grassclan's border. Now I wish to meet with my senior warriors. Larchsun will organize the patrol." And with that, she leaped off the ledge.

Most of the senior warriors were already in a huddle, talking quietly. When they saw Honeystar, they stopped, and nodded in respect. "Everyone's here Honeystar," Darkshade reported, "except for Owlbird." Honeystar groaned. Owlbird was always late.

"No matter, let's get on. We need to come up with a plan for attacking the rouges' camp. Seeing as we don't know where it is, it has to be a pretty awesome plan," Honeystar stated, smiling wryly. "Does anyone have any ideas?"

Sunstep piped up. "I know where the camp is." Honeystar felt really stupid. Sunstep was a rouge not too long ago, but despised their murderous ways and went to join Treeclan. "Alright Sunstep, you have to tell us where it is." Honeystar made a pawprint in the dirt. "This is our camp. Tell us where to go."

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"Okay rouges, listen to me. We are growing in numbers. Seed just had kits. My kits. They need more land. Well, we all could do with more land. Jut Place is our only territory. I will praise you for the fight with the warriors this morning, especially Ocean for that tabby warrior. But it's not enough. We must attack their camp."

Flash knew he had to wait awhile before telling them the plan. It was full moon. New moon meant darkness; instant sneakiness. They needed to wait a long time. Deep in thought, he was aimlessly walking when he ran into Branch. **(Not the same Branch in my story, Dawn Will Rise!) **

"Oh! I'm so sorry sir; I should have side stepped so you could pass!" Flash sighed. Branch was a little too polite for a rouge, but he made the rouges stronger.

"Anyway, I'm glad that you're here. I wanted to talk to you about your plans for attacking the clan cats. I feel we should let them know we are attacking them, just to make the fight fair."

Flash's anger flared up, but he forced himself to swallow it. "Branch, that's the _point!_ If they know about the attack, we have less of a chance of winning."

"But that doesn't seem very nice!"

"In case you've forgotten, we're rouges! End of discussion." Flash walked away, muttering to himself under his breath.

_Well, then I guess it's up to me to warn them! I'm sure Flash won't mind._ Branch thought to himself. He grinned, and headed out to find TreeClan. How hard could it be?


	2. Chapter 2

Branch easily slipped out of Jut Place and began making his way up, following the shore. It was late, and he could see the shadows getting longer and longer as the sun set.

By the time the moon had almost fully risen, Branch admitted it. He was lost.

"Oh I do hope I haven't worried the others," he said to himself.

He wandered around some more, trying to find the forests of TreeClan. All he could see was open field forever, stretching for many miles. He sighed. Not a cat in sight.

In a blink, he found himself on the ground, a cat standing over him. Her claws were digging into his belly, and she was growling.

"What do you want, _rouge?_" She drew out the word rouge like it was the most awful thing ever. Branch just stared at her. He was at a loss for words.

"Well, aren't you going to say something? What are you, deaf?"

He quickly shook his head, not wanting to make the cat angrier than she already was. The cat narrowed her yellow eyes, and unsheathed her claws.

"You are rouge, yet you are not fighting back. Where is your pride?"

Branch swallowed nervously. "Cats do not n-need to fight t-to show their pride." He swallowed again, bracing himself for the blow that was sure to come.

Instead, she got off him. "You are wise, rouge. Tell me, what business do you have here?"

Branch sat off, shaking off the clods of dirt that stuck to his fur. "I need to speak to TreeClan. Are you them?"

The she-cat looked at him and started to laugh. "Buddy, if you want TreeClan, you missed them. Probably went right through their territory. This is GrassClan."

Branch blinked. Went right through the territory? "Can you show me how to get there?"

The cat looked at him, sizing him up. She glared at him, though not out of anger. Finally, she gave her reply.

"I guess. Come, rouge, while it's still dark." She began to trot in the opposite direction, letting Branch follow her.

"Excuse me, but my name is not Rouge. It's Branch."

The she-cat stopped, turned around, and gave a sly smile.

"I'm Nightspring."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hawkblaze opened his eyes. His nest was warm, but he felt something missing. He sat up and looked around. He could only make out the shapes of cats, but he noticed one important shape missing.

"Hey, Mistyeyes," He prodded the grey warrior until she woke up, grumbling.

"What do you want? I was having the best dream!"

Hawkblaze winced. "Sorry, but this is important. Look."

Mistyeyes turned around and her eyes studied the den. "So, what's wrong?"

Hawkblaze stiffened. "What's wrong? Nightspring is missing! The rouges probably took her! We have to go rescue her!"

He was surprised to see Mistyeyes sigh and roll her eyes. "She's probably just hunting again. You know she likes to go out at night. She'll be back tomorrow, I promise you."

She lay back down and closed her eyes. Soon, Hawkblaze could hear her slow breaths; a sign that she was asleep.

He settled back down into his nest, but kept staring ahead. Nightspring's empty nest bothered him, even if he knew she was out hunting.

He sighed and closed his eyes. He was on the dawn patrol in the morning, and needed sleep. He let the image of Nightspring appear in his mind, calming him down.

He longed for her warmth, her presence next to him. The world felt dark and empty without her.

Slipping into sleep, his last thought was that if she didn't come back, he would be better off dead.

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A tiny kit opened his eyes. He blinked slowly, getting used to the light. He had heard things around him, but could never guess how…immense the world was.

He was snuggled up close to his mother, who was awake, talking to another cat. Next to him, his two brothers were sound asleep, undisturbed by the tom.

He was ready to go to sleep when his mother's voice rose. He opened his eyes, and strained his tiny ears to hear what they were saying.

"Gone?" his mother shrieked. "Well, someone must have seen him leave!"

The tom shook his head. "He slipped out unnoticed. I knew he was dumb, but never this stupid. You realize the danger he's putting all of us in?"

His mother nodded. "We need to send out a patrol to bring him back!"

Again, the tom shook his head. "I can't risk any more fighters." He looked angry and defiant, like it bothered him that he couldn't control the problem.

The kit shook his head, imitating the tom. Whatever they were talking about was not his problem. Besides, he was sleepy. He gave a tiny yawn, and closed his eyes. Whatever was wrong, his mother would solve it. She was the smartest cat alive.

He drifted into sleep, the ringing of the cats' voices getting farther and farther away.

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Honeystar paced her den nervously. It had been sunhigh when the patrol left, and it was now almost moonhigh. Had they been ambushed? Were they hurt? Dying?

She was so consumed by these thoughts that she did not notice Larchsun, her deputy, enter.

"Honeystar?"

She jumped, the hair on her neck standing up. She whirled around, and sighed in relief as she realized it was only Larchsun.

Larchsun winced. "Sorry Honeystar. The patrol has just arrived."

She jumped on him. "Well? Are they hurt? What took them so long? What did they find out? Are any of them-"

"Ask them, not me!"

Honeystar nodded and bounded out of the den; eager to hear what her clanmates had found out.


	3. Chapter 3

Branch decided that Nightspring was nice. And pretty. But he wasn't about to tell her that. They had been walking for a bit and now Branch could see the shape of trees against the horizon.

Nightspring grunted. "You're almost there." At the sound of that Branch stopped dead in his tracks.

_"Come on Riverfur, you're almost there!" A tiny voice squeaked. After she spoke, Branch felther voice ringing in his ears, and he shifted away from her._

_ "Hush Nightkit, that's quite enough," a calmer, gentler voice said. Branch liked that voice._

_ "Okay Riverfur, that's the last one. A tom and two she-cats!"_

_ Branch felt someone licking his pelt, and instantly knew it was his mother. He didn't know how, just that her warmth felt familiar. He curled up closer to her and gave out a tiny sigh of pleasure._

_ "What are their names?" The high-pitched voice was closer now, but Branch didn't mind as much. His mother was here._

_ "Well the one that's all brown is Watermkit, and the tabby she-cat is Morningkit. And the tom will be Branchkit."_

_ "Branchkit, huh? Yeah that's nice." Branch felt the shrill voice lean in close to him and felt something patting his head. "Branchkit, I'll take care of you. Maybe someday you'll be my apprentice!"_

"Branch, everything okay?" Nightspring asked him. She was farther ahead as she hadn't noticed he had stopped. Branch turned around and ran as fast as he could back home.

Back to GrassClan.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
>Honeystar was in her den with Larchsun and Sunstep. She was pacing back and forth while they were just staring at her. This had been going on for a while and she still had no idea what to do. Well, that was a lie. She had some of an idea, but not a good one.<p>

"Sunstep, how many rouges are there?"

Sunstep and Larchsun stared at each other for a moment. "Honeystar you've asked me that. Three times. I don't know. Seed was expecting when I left and StarClan knows how many more they've gotten."

That wasn't very helpful. Honeystar didn't want to send her cats off to fight a lost cause. These rouges were bloodthirsty. They would kill without thinking about it. No matter what, the clan was hopelessly outnumbered.

"So we need more clans…." Honeystar murmured to herself.

"What was that?" Larchsun asked.

Honeystar ran out of her den without giving the other cats a second thought. She darted out of the clearing and ran through the trees, running as fast as she could. One clan couldn't stop the rouges. She was sure of that. But two had a chance.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"They're lovely Seed! What have you named them?"

Seed smiled down at her four kits. "Gorge, Blazer, Robin, and Silver."

Snow licked the tiniest she-cat. "A foster mother huh? She'll make a good one. I can just tell. And the others look very strong too."

"Yes, they're going to be just like their father. Strong and Brave. Maybe one will be leader someday."

Seed felt Snow tense up slightly. She knew Snow wanted Rock, her foster kit, to be leader more than anything. Seed felt for her; Rock could kill anything instantly, and wasn't afraid of anything, but she always felt he would never be able to hold the rouges together. He would end up destroying them.

No, as she looked down at her kits she was certain Blazer would be leader. He was the biggest kit, and he even had some tiny muscles on him. He looked so innocent sleeping, but she knew he would grow up strong and proud.

She would make sure of it.


End file.
